It is known to provide automatic transmissions with housings or covers of steel or plastic which have little or no functionality other than to enclose or cover the various components of the automatic transmission, such as the valve body, suction filter and automatic transmission fluid in the transmission. As a result, even when performing routine service procedures on an automatic transmission, it is necessary to partially disassemble the automatic transmission by first removing a cover or covers thereof to gain access to components therein for performing service or routine maintenance operations. For example, replacing the suction transmission fluid filter requires first removing a pan or cover to expose the filter, then extracting the old filter and installing a new filter and finally reinstalling the pan or cover over the filter. As can be appreciated, simple, routine service or maintenance operations are made more difficult, complicated, time consuming and expensive by the arrangements of components that require disassembly by first removing or disassembling the cover or housing just to gain access to replaceable components, such as filters. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an automatic transmission design that is efficient and accessible, to facilitate the performance of routine servicing procedures for the transmission.
It is known further to provide transmission fluid conduits or lines as distinct elements or features from one component of the automatic transmission to another component of the automatic transmission. Accordingly, the overall transmission assembly can become bulky in design, simply to provide sufficient space to accommodate the network of transmission fluid conduits. As a result of the sizes of automatic transmissions, automobile designers have been limited in the placement of such transmissions. Accordingly, it is desirable to minimize the size of an automatic transmission to the extent possible, to facilitate the design and placement thereof in an overall vehicle assembly to promote operating efficiency as well as aesthetics.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a more efficient design for automatic transmissions, and particularly for the housing components of automatic transmissions, to minimize the overall size of the automatic transmission and to improve accessibility to functional components of the automatic transmission, and especially to service components that are replaced at routine service intervals.